


Your Own Person

by KeybladeMom



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Post-Canon, Post-Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 21:52:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeybladeMom/pseuds/KeybladeMom
Summary: Sudden rainfall forces Naminé and Xion to take shelter in the abandoned Old Mansion. It had been at least two years since either of them had set foot inside, but the memories made within still cast their shadows on the two. They pass the time reminiscing and exploring the emotions still foreign to their newly developed hearts.





	Your Own Person

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the songs  
> flowers feat. nori by In Love With A Ghost  
> &  
> From Here (ft Cae) by Adib Sin  
> You should really check out the songs on Youtube, they’re so chill. Maybe pop ‘em in while you’re giving this a read?

They planned on being caught in the rain. What they didn’t plan for was the torrential downpour that overtook them within seconds.

Naminé’s hand enveloped Xion’s, keeping it warm as they ran for cover, their laughter ringing through the forest. Mud splashed onto their shoes and plastered onto their legs while rain drenched their clothing and ran down their faces. Xion was the first to spot the building in the distance, directing their course towards the blessing of a man-made shelter.

She hadn’t realized exactly what they were heading for, not yet, but Naminé couldn’t blame her. She’d only been there once, after all. Naminé, on the other hand, had spent a year of her life in that mansion. A year, of course, being her entire span of existence at that time.

Naminé skidded to a halt, making Xion ricochet back towards her. Her feet were planted firmly in the ground, unwilling and unable to take any more steps towards that cursed building. Xion glanced at her with eyebrows raised and looked back towards the mansion with the same expression before realization finally dawned on her face.

“Naminé, I’m sorry I didn’t even realize—” she broke off to turn back towards the forest, tugging Naminé along. “C’mon, these trees will hold off the rain well enough until we get back to town.”

Naminé almost followed, until guilt settled in her bones seeing the way Xion’s shoulders were shaking and her teeth were chattering. Naminé was freezing to the bone as well; Twilight Town being situated in the mountains made the crisp air turn deadly when one was soaked.

“N-No, no it’s okay. I just got surprised is all,” she said, encouraging Xion to come with her and setting them back on a path towards the mansion.

“Are you sure?” Xion asked, stepping closer to Naminé, her gaze scrutinizing her features as if searching for even a hint of hesitation. Naminé knew Xion would never agree to this if she showed how uncomfortable she actually was, and so she nodded her head empathetically while forcing a smile. “I’m sure. Now come on, before we both catch a cold.”

Xion stayed a second longer, her expression worried, but Naminé squeezed her hand in reassurance and the duo set off in another mad dash towards the mansion. The rusted gates were easy enough to push open, and the crumbling walls seemed even more desecrated than she remembered. As the two entered the dusty mansion, Xion turned to push the doors shut, successfully blocking out the wind and rains. Naminé felt a shiver run up the length of her spine and settle deeply within her heart, making her skin crawl. The darkened clouds didn’t allow much sunlight to filter through the wide windows, leaving the entire entryway drenched in shadows.

Suddenly, light and warmth emanated from her side, and Naminé turned to see Xion cupping a small fire spell in her hands. Her tongue poked out the side of her mouth slightly as she concentrated on forming the spell into a perfect ball, something Naminé found indescribably cute. Eventually, Xion held the completed spell in front of her, brandishing a proud smile that she turned onto Naminé.

“There! Now we can see _and_ be warmed up.”

Naminé let out a small puff of laughter at this. At least she had Xion here with her.

The two made their way forward, somewhat cautiously, further into the mansion. Xion viewed the crumbled unicorn statues that flanked the two staircases, the fallen chandelier that split the table in the middle of the room, and the intricate designs carved into seemingly every piece of furniture. Her eyes darted all around, absorbing all the small details she had been unable to see during her first…visit.

As she did so, her feet unconsciously took her closer to the large set of glass paneled doors nestled comfortably between the staircases, offering a view of the backyard. She could only imagine the grandeur of the garden that existed here before the mansion was abandoned and left to the ruins of time. All that was left of it now was a dirtied fountain and several destroyed flower beds, all of which were completely reclaimed by nature. As she turned to Naminé to ask if they should start a garden back home, she found the small girl was nowhere to be found.

Whirling around in a panic, her heart settled when she spotted Naminé climbing the staircase to her right. The worry returned, however, when she saw her mouth was slightly parted, as if she was breathing in gasps, and her eyes seemed vacant, totally fixated on the destination ahead. Xion frowned, hurrying to Naminé’s side.

Naminé couldn’t help it. It was like she was being magnetically drawn back to the room. Or should she say back to _her_ room. She didn’t really want to see it, didn’t particularly care to see it, and dreaded what memories it would drag back up to the surface. Yet she couldn’t fight against this unseen force, so she allowed her feet to guide her up the pathway she had tread so many times before. She barely even registered Xion coming to stand beside of her, she couldn’t even murmur a thanks for the silent reassurance of her presence, which made her feel slightly guilty. She’d thank Xion again later, when she regained control of her voice.

The two walked forward in silence, reaching the door that was already partially opened. Naminé could already see the glowing white that emanated from within, causing her hand to stop in midair when she reached forward to push her way in. Xion stepped forward in her wake, seeming to realize something within Naminé needed to see this room. With a small reluctant creek, the door was pushed back, revealing the White Room in its fullness.

It didn’t even seem to matter that a storm was raging outside; the White Room remained calm, serene, seeming to be lit up by an unknown light source. Xion extinguished the fire in her hand with a quick clench of her fist. In place of the flame, Naminé’s hand entered hers. (To Xion, the warmth of Naminé’s hand was even stronger than the fire spell she’d been casting.) Naminé clung to Xion’s hand like it was her lifeline as the two stepped in tandem, towards the table that was as white as the walls surrounding it.

“Remember the first time we met in here?” Xion asked, her voice seeming to echo much more in this room than it had in the vast entrance hall.

“Of course,” Naminé answered simply. The almost instant tack on of ‘how could I forget?’ was gracefully swallowed before Xion could even notice the awkward pause at the end of her statement.

Naminé let her empty hand trail along the edge of the table, viewing the dust that gathered on her fingertips with furrowed brows. The room was, of course, a part of the mansion. Of course it would become dirty and forgotten with time. The existence of the dust still struck an odd cord within Naminé’s heart. When she lived here, she would clean almost obsessively, sometimes getting Riku to join her in dusting and fixing up various parts of the mansion. When they left, the building seemingly slipped back into disarray without their intervention. Without _her_ intervention. It moved on, leaving her forgotten.

_Of course it would_ , Naminé repeated to herself, quickly becoming annoyed with her sensitivity towards such a seemingly insignificant thing. It was just a dusty room for goodness sakes. But something about the feeling of not making an impact, not being needed, made a burning sensation prick at the corners of her vision. She rapidly blinked it away, not subtle enough to stop a small sniff from escaping as she did so. Xion immediately stiffened and faced her, concern written deeply in her features.

“Naminé…maybe we should leave.”

“No,” she immediately replied, her tone watery. She sniffed again and wiped at her face, giving her voice time to strengthen. “No, it’s still storming outside. We can’t leave.”

“Then let’s at least get out of this room,” Xion countered, tugging at her hand.

“Not yet,” Naminé whispered, ignoring Xion’s huff of frustration. “There’s still some stuff here I want…I want to see.”

“Like what?” Xion asked, looking about the empty room.

Naminé pulled away from her grasp and walked towards a chest tucked into the corner of the room. With a grunt and a small amount of effort, she pushed it open, working against the rust that had formed on the hinges. The windows must’ve not been shut all the way and let some of the moisture in. Naminé was slightly worried about the contents inside, but all was revealed to be safe and dry when she peered inside. She heard Xion shuffle her way over, leaning over her shoulder to see what was worth staying in the room for.

“Like these.”

Naminé gathered as much as she could in her arms and carefully placed them onto the table. Several pieces of paper fell out of the sketchbooks while crayons rolled in all directions as Xion looked on in wonder. They both thumbed through the sketches, picturing memories of Sora’s first adventure as well as Roxas’s days in the Organization.

“You…kept them?” Xion whispered, having a hard time talking past a strange lump in her throat. “All of them?”

“Yes.”

Xion’s fingers skimmed over the pictures, her hand freezing over a particular drawing buried under the rest. Carefully brushing the others aside, she pulled out the picture of her, Axel, and Roxas on the Clock Tower. Naminé watched a soft smile form on her face as her fingers traced the outline of the figures fondly.

“It was that picture that helped me hold onto your name,” Naminé said, her voice slightly lowered. They didn’t really speak much of what occurred those few years ago, most of their friends liked to pretend it didn’t happen. They liked to do that for a lot of things, now that Naminé was thinking about it.

“What was it like?” Xion asked, now looking fully at her. The picture was still clutched within her hands. “To know my name but not me?”

“It was…strange,” Naminé said, absentmindedly arranging the crayons on the table. “I knew it had meaning, but when I tried to think of why the answer slipped through my fingers every time. I tried to use my powers to hold onto you for as long as I could, but…” she drifted off, biting her lip. “Eventually, whenever I said your name I couldn’t hear it. It was like static in my mind.”

A tense silence fell between the two, and Naminé understood why they didn’t talk about things like this when they could avoid it. Some things were better left unsaid.

Xion eventually returned to shuffling through the pictures, letting out a quiet laugh or murmur whenever reaching a memory she recognized. Naminé, on the other hand, had finally given into the itch to draw (brought about by seeing all her old art supplies) and opened a sketchbook to a blank page. She loved filling up a page with colors, anything to get rid of that horrid white. She’d had seen enough of the color white to last two lifetimes.

With her full concentration now on the way the colors marked the page, everything in the background just seemed to fade away. Naminé loved that about drawing, how it could just take her away to another place entirely.

“Do you think you could teach me?” Xion spoke, seemingly directly into Naminé’s ear, causing the girl to jump slightly. Xion tried to bite back a giggle at this, but didn’t quite smother the amused gleam in her eyes. Naminé huffed slightly, smoothing her hair back into place before responding.

“Teach you what?”

“How to draw,” Xion answered, pointing at the page. Naminé had sketched the entrance hallway to the mansion, or what she thought it might’ve looked like before it was left abandoned. “You’ve only been drawing for a few minutes but you already managed to make something beautiful. I wanna be able to do that.”

Naminé hummed thoughtfully. She never really taught anybody how to…well, how to do anything. Especially not to draw; she didn’t really know how she did it herself. It just came to her naturally—there was no learning curve for her to base lessons off of. But the thought of her and Xion simply drawing together in a calm silence was too good a thought to let it pass. “I guess I can try.”

With an excited giggle, Xion sat down in a chair, eagerly awaiting further instructions. Naminé hesitated, not really knowing where to start. “Well…okay, the first thing you need is paper and something to draw with.”

Xion reached for Naminé’s sketchbook before hesitating, looking towards her with an apologetic smile. “Is it okay if I take some paper from this?”

Naminé nodded, a small smile forming at Xion’s simple show of thoughtfulness.

Xion flipped to the very back of the book before (very carefully) ripping several pages from it and grabbing a blue crayon from Naminé’s pile. She paused with her hand hovering over the paper, crayon poised and ready for action.

“Now…” Naminé paused, trying desperately to think of what she did when she first started drawing. Her first couple days of existence were fuzzy, but as far as she could remember, she’d just simply picked up the notebook and started drawing, as simple as that. “Now you just draw.”

Xion frowned at this. “What do I draw?”

“Anything,” Naminé replied.

Xion’s eyes darted from Naminé to the blank page, the frown deepening. This caused Naminé to frown as well. Obviously, her ‘lessons’ weren’t going so well.

“I usually draw the first thing I see, or the first thing I think of. Like a favorite memory,” Naminé offered up, hoping to salvage the quickly failing future of being an art teacher.

Xion tapped the tip of the crayon against her cheek as she thought, her eyes darting about the room. Suddenly they lit up and she smiled widely,bringing the papers closer to her and setting about drawing immediately. The tip of her tongue once again poked through the side of her mouth, showing she was in deep concentration. Naminé bit back a giggle at this and returned to her own sketchbook, turning to another page and absentmindedly letting her fingers handle the drawing.

As she did, her thoughts eventually drifted to Xion.

They had met in this room, a meeting that Naminé regretted was their first memory of each other. After all, they hadn’t discussed a particularly good subject. Despite this, it was still where Naminé had received her first hug, given to her by a consoling Xion before they had set off to see Sora (and before Xion had hastily left the mansion, rashly attacking the invading Organization member before Riku arrived to help).

Naminé desperately wanted to cling to the memory of Xion and of the first hug she had ever received; to grasp onto the feelings that stirred within her whenever she thought of the warmth Xion's embrace had brought, but…she hadn’t been able to. After Xion returned to Sora, the memories eventually slipped away, until all that was left was Xion’s name, and even that was a burden to hold onto. It was only through Naminé’s sheer force of stubborn will that the name remained. There were countless pages filled entirely with that one word as she refused to let it fade.

Xion.

When Sora had accidentally brought back two people instead of one with the Key to Return Hearts, Roxas and a black-haired girl, suddenly everyone remembered her all at once. It had been a very, very tearful reunion. Even the usually calm and poised Riku had been unabashedly relieved to see Xion reformed (and had set out to make up everything he’d done up to her). Then of course, after the war, the four of them (Lea, Roxas, Xion, and Naminé) decided the best course of action was to move back to Twilight Town. This time as real, actual, townsfolk. And, as they say, the rest was history.

Naminé came back into her own body and looked down at the drawing she had only been half way paying attention to. An image of Xion stared back at her, mouth opened in a happy smile. Naminé couldn’t help but return it.

Xion had been the one she trusted most in this new life. After Xehanort had been taken care of and the world settled down, Naminé still couldn’t help but be haunted by figures in her life and traumas of past transgressions that she thought would never heal. Not even Kairi could get her to open up sometimes, but that’s where Xion stepped in. She just had this way of making Naminé feel so…comfortable. Naminé trusted Xion fully with these secrets and doubts, just as Xion trusted Naminé with her troubles in return. She was soft, quiet, and kind, and yet she was still determined, stubborn, and outgoing when Naminé needed it most. Something in her heart just went into overdrive at the sight of Xion sometimes.

She had admitted these feelings to Kairi at one point, but the girl had just laughed and said something about skinny love running in the friend group, and that she needed to confess this to Xion instead. Naminé hadn’t actually conjured up the nerve to do that yet. Whenever she tried, words mysteriously failed her and her heart beat so hard within her chest that it hurt.

(Even after two years, she still wasn’t totally used to the kinds of emotions that made her heart leap and jump like that.) 

Glancing towards Xion, she found she was putting the finishing touches on her drawing. The crayon was gripped somewhat clumsily within her fingers, and she was putting too much pressure on it. Naminé made a mental note to correct this if these lessons were to continue in the future. Eventually, Xion sat back with a sigh, letting Naminé view the picture in full.

Even though Xion had become her own person, traits of Sora still showed through at times. Currently, it was his artistic ‘talent’. Naminé couldn’t help but giggle at the wobbly lines and the colors that dipped outside of the picture, reminding her too much of the clumsy boy. Xion, unfortunately, heard this quiet chortle and sat back with an embarrassed frown.

“I’m…I’m not very good, am I?” she eventually asked, scratching at her reddened cheek.

“I love it, Xion,” Naminé replied without hesitation. And she really did. Because Xion had attempted to draw her; blonde hair, blue eyes, soft grin, and all. It really was rather good for a first attempt, especially considering the scope of talent she apparently inherited from Sora. Naminé could see a fine artist developing out of her yet.

But examining the picture made her realize something. Something that made her heart twinge from nostalgia.

Naminé pushed the picture she’d drawn over, matching it up with Xion’s so the other girl could understand her sudden silence.

They had drawn each other, unconsciously and unplanned, much like Kairi and Sora had in the Secret Place all those years ago. The same headshots, facing the same way, even with the same kind of smiles.

They both stared down at the drawings with barely contained surprise that broke when they both started to giggle. Soon that giggling morphed into full blown laughter, the kind that made tears stream down their cheeks and their stomachs clench in pain.

To be quite honest, Naminé didn’t know why they’d started laughing. Maybe it was from the nervousness that arouse whenever the two thought back to the days of being Nobodies, where they didn’t have control over their own fates. Maybe it was because of the irony they’d created a replica of the original picture, which represented their own coming into being. Or maybe, it was from the fluttering of their hearts and the flushing of their cheeks that implied an emotion they’d rather not name just quite yet.

Sora and Kairi. The star-crossed lovers who found each other despite all the odds stacked against them. The soulmates who were absolutely perfect for each other. So then, what did that make Xion and Naminé? The hollowed shells who emerged from this victorious pairing, the shadows that couldn’t even feel for themselves until two years ago. 

As the laughter died down and the last tears were wiped away, their lingering gasps and giggles filled the room. Naminé doubted the White Room had ever heard so much mirth within its walls.

Xion suddenly pulled both pages over to her, picking up a crayon as well. When Naminé questioned what she was doing, she replied with a small grin, “Well, something’s missing, isn’t it?”

Naminé tilted her head, not exactly following her train of thought. Until Xion started sketching a star-shaped piece of fruit within Naminé’s drawing of her. Her tongue stuck out as she drew, a blush on her cheeks as if she knew Naminé was watching every movement she made. Eventually she sat back with a lopsided grin, viewing the completed picture. The drawing of Xion now extended her hand outwards, offering a Paopu fruit to the drawing of Naminé.

“There. Now it’s perfect.”

Naminé couldn’t hide the soft smile that overtook her features. A warm feeling sprouted in her heart, shooting through her body like a wild fire. A suspicious pricking at the corner of her eyes made her give a watery laugh. Xion looked up at her with a proud smile that faded slightly seeing the tears falling quietly.

“Was that…bad?” Xion murmured, her eyes darting back and forth between the picture and Naminé.

“No it’s just…not finished yet,” Naminé said with a small laugh, leaning over Xion’s shoulders. Picking up the crayon that was tossed to the side, she filled in the empty spot on Xion’s portrait of her, a hand reaching out to gift her own Paopu fruit in return.

“Oh…right,” Xion laughed nervously, her face flushing so much that Naminé was concerned the other would pass out. Without really knowing why, or what force was motivating her to do it, Naminé leaned in and placed a small peck against Xion’s cheek. Even just the feeling of her soft skin under Naminé’s lips was enough to set her heart aflame. Pulling back, she viewed Xion’s flabbergasted expression.

“What was that for?” she murmured, fingers reaching up as if to brush against the spot Naminé had kissed.

“It, um, it was a thank you,” Naminé replied, feeling the heat rising to her own face.

“For what?”

“For…everything.”

Xion fell silent at this, contemplation written in her features. Then, with her movements slow and uncertain, she leaned forward and captured Naminé’s lips in a quick kiss.

When she pulled back, both girls were left stunned by the electricity that had flown between them from such a simple touch. With eyes wide and searching, they found nothing could be said in this moment that would exactly capture the way their hearts beat in unison. Even if there was, the two girls would’ve been foreign to the meaning. So instead, Xion simply whispered a weak, “Thank _you_ , Naminé. For everything.”

With the tense silence broken, Naminé let out a giggle, covering her mouth and bowing her head in attempts to hide her flushing face. A small ray of light suddenly fell over the two, making them perk up with their heads turned towards the window. They hadn’t even realized it, but the sounds of the wind and rain had completely faded.

“H-Hey! I think the storm's over!” Xion jumped up and headed towards the windows, throwing back the dusty curtains to reveal the storm had indeed passed. Blue skies peeked through the last of the darkened clouds as the sun reflected off the damped surface of the mansion. It all looked rather…beautiful.

Xion tossed a grin over her shoulder at Naminé. “Let’s get back before the boys get all worried and send out a search party.”

Naminé beamed and headed towards Xion before stopping in her tracks, her mouth parting as she remembered a very important step in their art lesson they almost missed. “Wait! You forgot to hang your picture up!”

Xion blinked, staring at her with her head tilted slightly in confusion.

“The last step of making art is hanging it up. At least, that’s what Riku told me you should do with it,” Naminé explained, as she headed back to the chest to fish out her other supplies. She emerged victoriously with a roll of tape in her hand and headed over to the two pictures, still posed side by side.

Xion, having caught onto Naminé’s intentions, carefully picked them off the table and held them in place against the wall. When the deed was done, the two stepped back and viewed their own selves, now immortalized in permanent smiles. As the light fell over the drawings, their hands found each other once again and intertwined. A perfect fit.

When they finally headed towards the mansion’s exit, Naminé thought it had never seemed more peaceful. Their arms swung loosely as they made their way back through the forest pathway, during which Xion seemed to become aware for the first time of their dirtied appearance.

“You think Lea’s gonna get mad if we track mud all over the apartment?”

Naminé gave her a mischievous grin. “Lea’s doing the dishes tonight. You were the one who was supposed to be cleaning the floors.”

Xion blanched at this, her mouth pressed in a thin line. “…You think he’d be willing to trade?”

Naminé simply laughed at this, her hand grasping Xion’s a little tighter.


End file.
